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Did You Know?

Trivia:

Dutchy's statements about flying, "Include me out," is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn. It is one of many malapropisms attributed to him.See more »

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Carter is shot by Jean Arthur's character, the hammer on the the revolver had not been drawn back. A revolver will not discharge from just being dropped on table unless it had been cocked; and even then it's not a certainty.See more »

If you ever wondered what all the fuss about Howard Hawks was all
about, this is the film to catch. It is a first-hand lesson in what the
Hawks universe was all about, and it is unsurpassed entertainment from
the word go. Two hours of undiminished tension, action-wise, sexually,
whatnot.

New York showgirl Bonnie (Jean Arthur) is on a stop-over in small-town
Barrance somewhere in South America. Here she meets Geoff (Cary Grant),
the leader of a small band of mail pilots having to cross a perilous
mountain pass on a daily basis, and casualties are to be expected.
Within little more than ten minutes of screen-time the young man, who
had asked Bonnie out to dinner, is dead in a spectacular crash scene,
and from there on the plot and the action pick up space. Bonnie is
dismayed by the way the dead pilot's colleagues seem not to care about
his death, they just go about their business and pretend he was never
there in the first place, so as not to be reminded of their own
mortality. "Joe died flying", says Geoff. "That was his job. He just
wasn't good enough. That's why he got it". Dismayed as she may be,
though, Bonnie cannot leave, since she is falling in love with Geoff
but fast.

In this confined space, made even more confined by the dense fog and
pouring rain that characterize the local climate, the scene is set for
one of Hawks' perceptive gatherings of a group of people to have us
observe the dynamics of people interacting, different ethos at work in
a seemingly laconic male environment, the love, the rivalry, the
camaraderie. The fear. Further upsetting the close-knit community is
the arrival of a new fryer (Richard Barthelmess in the best performance
of his mature years) who has to prove himself doubly because once in
his life he turned yellow. With him he has Rita Hayworth, Geoff's old
girl-friend ...

This is quintessential Hawks, just in the way that Barthelmess'
character has to strive to earn any ounce of respect from his peers.
But in every frame it is a deserved classic, and great performances
abound.

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